ArtsWatch

A dozen local arts and cultural organizations have received management grants awarded by a unit of the Pew Charitable Trusts. The $1.1 million in grants are aimed at operational and management practices such as staff development, technological and management improvement and upgraded financial management systems, said officials of Pew's Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative.
Those receiving grants for 2008 included:
Art-Reach -- $120,000 to develop a program evaluation system to measure the effectiveness of its prorgamming. Art-Reach is a Philadelphia-based service organzation focused on underserved audiences; Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia -- $83,745 to support a full-time marketing and box office assistant; Conservation Center for Arts & Historic Artifacts, $102,500 to support a manager of digital photography who will oversee a new digital documentation studio at the Philadelphia center; Painted Bride Arts Center -- $85,000 to support a two-year project to refine and expand membership and individual giving programs at the Old City institition; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology -- $120,000 to help implement a collections management database conversion project over the next three years; Philadelphia Theatre Company -- $120,000 to support a full-time corporate membership manager/special events coordinator to focus on contributions to operating revenues and to "extend the reach and services that the company provides to the region's corporate community," according to the announcement from the cultural managent initiative;.
Pig Iron Theatre Company -- $81,500 to support a full-time business manager for the Philadelphia troupe; Please Touch Museum -- $ 76,439 for employee and volunteer training in advance of the organization's move to new quarters in Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park; Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia -- $85,000 to fund a full-time chief operating officer; Rosenbach Museum & Library -- $120,000 to support a traveling-exhibitions coordinator and provide funds for developing marketing materials, web pages and advertising; Walnut Street Theatre -- $85,000 for a full-time annual-fund manager; Wood Turning Center -- $85,000 for a full-time director of development for the Philadelphia art organization.
- Stephan Salisbury